Signs of spring....uplifting on an early January day. :0)

"Spring" was alarmingly far ahead here (for a place with actually cold winters, unlike zone 8/9 UK) but hopefully the current cool (not cold!) spell stays until March!

for example paperwhite narcissus were growing at a good clip and might have been blooming in 2-3 more weeks.

I just took this picture of Camellia 'Mieko Tanaka' yesterday afternoon; would be nice to go take again with the snow but I'm happy to stay warm RN LOL.

Oh now I’m envious: it was -33C last night!

The past week here has put paid to any thoughts of spring....at least for awhile :-) Record breaking low temperatures have most likely finished off my 3 year old planting of zonal geraniums, snapdragons and a lone begonia. Got a bit spoiled with the last few winters as I barely even experienced a frost!! But the hellebores are producing on schedule. And I do see the nub of a single hyacinth poking above ground but no other bulbs are looking promising yet.

With a thaw of above freezing temps, the snow has melted only to be replaced by rain.....a LOT of rain! Lowland flooding is predicted. And gale force winds last night left another big chunk of tree lying across my back garden

It’s supposed to cool off here soon. It’s been unseasonably warm. Around 55 - 59f. We had the warmest NYD on record. My spider plants and Schefflera are still outside from the summer. The bulbs always start early but springs are long and cool. We might even get some snow for a couple of days.

Thanks for the photos of hope! It might still be two or more months before this garden gets there so the first sprouts are always encouraging.

We had 65 yesterday and 30 today ..Gardengal, the snapdragon s might just survive. They do around here so...mine are still out in pots. Tulips and hyacinths have been poking out for a while with rather warm temps so far but winter is finally here so they won't be blooming anytime soon.

So nice to see signs of spring - even if they are halfway around the world lol! We went from two days around 50 degrees over the past weekend (unusually warm for these parts) to (so far) two days in the 20's (17 degrees this morning when I went to the gym - brr!). So no signs here yet, and likely not for some time. So it's nice to live vicariously and know that sooner or later we'll be seeing things poking up through the ground too!

:)

Dee